Well I dunno if this is the appropriate section to put this in, but I read this just now and it's got me fuming. I just want to do one giant :facepalm: Ugh.

VATICAN CITY - "Avatar" is wooing audiences worldwide with visually dazzling landscapes and nature-loving blue creatures. But the Vatican is no easy crowd to please.

The Vatican newspaper and radio station are criticizing James Cameron's 3-D blockbuster for flirting with the idea that worship of nature can replace religion — a notion the pope has warned against. They call the movie a simplistic and sappy tale, despite its awe-inspiring special effects.

I guess it's more "right" to conduct your spiritual life in the manner that man wants you to rather than showing reverence for the very thing that god(s) created. Yes, let us all go into man made buildings and read a book written by man (no matter WHO inspired it) and follow the rules that MAN has laid down.

From the organization that perverted, assimilated, and destroyed much of Paganism throughout history, can we expect anything less than a continuation of that? Capitalizing on fears, guilt, and pain, the Catholic Church has done nothing to improve quality of life or contribute to the human race.

Crazy Healer LadyHealth and happiness to you!

The purpose of a relationship is not to have another who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness. -CWG

Yes, the Narnia books have christian themes...the point I was making was...despite that...do you really think someone going to a nifty fantasy movie is going to sit there and analyze the underlying religious message? Do you think that the person who developed the movie was concerned with keeping that underlying message obvious? Probably not.

And I agree with CHL...what else do you expect from an institution that has spent centuries demonizing and destroying various Pagan paths and traditions.

Venting is always good. After all, the Fundies section is definitely an outlet for that! Now, the question is, would the Catholic Church get away with flaming a movie because, "We warned you about Judaism?" Or would that constitute a hate message? It's definitely time that Pagan's stop being the butt end of this.

Rowan wrote:No I don't expect anything less from the Catholic church. I was just venting. Bad enough that Avatar is seen as a racially critical movie.

DON'T get me started!! Bunch of pompous idiots pretending to be progressive and intelligent knocking something down so that they can be "way cooler."

If you look hard enough, you can find a way to criticize anything.

Crazy Healer LadyHealth and happiness to you!

The purpose of a relationship is not to have another who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness. -CWG

And I personally hope they will continue to flame the movie. The more attention they bring to it, the more people will go see it.

This movie is one of those that will make people stop and look at what they're fighting for. It's my hope that people will see it and realize that they aren't "seeing" as the movie suggests that we should. As soon as people learn to do that, we'll have less problems all around.

Trying to create a world, even in words, is good occupational therapy for lunatics who think they're God, and an excellent argument for Polytheism. -S.M. Stirling

I had found this article last year sometime, and remembered feeling similar to that when I first read the Narnia series. I hadn't seen it as an allegory of the Christian stories. I had read them and enjoyed them based on the talking animals and Witch's in the book. In fact the main message I got out of it was that it is only when Man is working in tandem with Nature that the world is at peace.

It's a beautiful sentiment, I think... one that brings hope and warmth to hearts long since gone cold.

Trying to create a world, even in words, is good occupational therapy for lunatics who think they're God, and an excellent argument for Polytheism. -S.M. Stirling

To be honest, it took someone ELSE pointing it out for me to get the underlying Christian message.

I had the same thoughts, Kitsune...that it was meant as a "when we work in harmony with the earth, we thrive". And parts of the Voyage of the Dawn Treader struck me as "Stop judging people on superficial grounds!"